There have been conventionally indicating instruments in which a pointer points at an indicating portion on a dial (display plate). In such an indicating instrument, the pointer is directly secured to a rotation shaft of pointer drive means including a stepping motor or the like (rotation drive member), and the pointer is rotated in association with rotation drive of the pointer drive means and thus caused to point at the indicating portion.
Such a configuration, however, requires a punching step of forming a through hole for passing the rotation shaft through in the dial to complicate the manufacture of the dial, thereby presenting the problem of the inability to manufacture the dial inexpensively. Especially, when a variable display element such as a liquid crystal display element is used for the dial as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a through hole should be formed in a glass substrate of the variable display element to cause the problem of an increase in the manufacture cost of the variable display element.    Patent Document 1: JP-UM-A-3-44624    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2003-161650
To address the problems, the present applicant has proposed an indicating instrument in Patent Document 2 in which a first magnet is provided in a pointer and a second magnet is provided in pointer drive means such that the pointer is rotated in association with rotation drive of the pointer drive means by the magnetic force (attraction force) of the first and second magnets. According to the configuration, the dial can be manufactured easily and inexpensively without requiring formation of a through hole in the display plate.